Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Etch a Mac

I would like know why someone would voluntarily pay $35+ ($35 for 3x3, $70 for 4x4 and $100 for 5x5 inches with purchase of a Powerbook) to have “All Rights Reserved” (版權所有) in Chinese etched on their Apple Powerbook.

Does having Chinese characters etched on the Powerbook would make it any more unique than the next Joe Schmoe’s Powerbook with the exact same Chinese phrase? Also, does the potential customer even know what the phrase really mean? It could easy be "pretentious douche bag", although that would be a much entertaining choice than "All Rights Reserved".

(Disclaimer: I don't think Apple computer users are douche bags)

Couldn’t they come up with some creative or inspiring phrases? I mean there are literally millions of Chinese literatures to choose from.

Here is one suggestion I have: how about just etch the owner’s contact info in case the laptop has been snatched from their local hot spot.

Ps. Thanks to the "cult of mac" for sending it in.

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I think this is just more evidence about how cool Chinese culture and language are becomming in the US. In my parents' day there's no way someone would want that. They might even pay less if something had Chinese on it. Heck, even when I was growing up, Chinese was definitely not cool (though Japanese stuff was gaining traction through anime).

I think in general this is a good sign. I just hope to god Americans don't get as carried away with Chinese as Japanese and Taiwanese people have with English. The day marketing people start making long winded paragraphs of mangled Chinese gibberish and putting them in every third product ad they make just because westerners think it's "cool" is the day I make my own blog to mock them.

Absolutely funny... imagine walking around for the rest of your life with something misspelled in English and sounding illiterate like " i are realy coole "... tattooed on your arm for the world to see:)

yet you/we will see people with this stuff. I am glad you bring these low functioning cognitive types to the light of day, and have a little fun at their expense.

I've gotta sticker on my laptop that says "Beware of the dog" in 3 different languages (English, Malay, Chinese). I bought it @ home in Malaysia where you routinely see signs in multiple languages. Now, if only I can find a program to make it bark when an unauthorized user tries to log in...

Not to be an apologist, but I can see that being acceptable. They don't explicitly sell that (though I'm sure they would sell you it if you asked for it), they etch whatever you want them to onto your powerbook. And rather than write out a message, they just scrawled "All Rights Reserved" on it, serving the twofold purpose of:

1. Having a display unit that's explicitly for display only, and

2. Since I presume the font is custom-ordered, slyly guarding against theft.

Moreover, since it's an odd choice, if anyone else sells merchandise with those four characters in that font, it's fairly obvious that it was stolen from them--which it wouldn't be if they just wrote a giant 愛 in a standard font.